Two to three days prior to mixing dough, place 75g organic quinoa and 75g organic kamut in a clear container, cover completely with room temperature water and soak for 3-4 hours to activate the sprouting. After soaking, drain container well. Rinse off soaked grains, and drain thoroughly once more. Cover container with lid and set in a cool, dry place. Rinse and drain grains every 12 hours or so until the grains start to sprout. No soaking is necessary. Upon the first signs of sprouting, place grains in the fridge until you are ready to mix your dough.

Levain

Make sure your sourdough culture is active. Ideally, it will have been fed at least three times in 12-hour intervals (36 hours of total feedings) prior your mix day. The morning of you mix day, incorporate 50g of ripe sourdough starter into 100g of 80-degree water, preferably in a clear container. Stir to dissolve. Add 100g of high extraction wheat flour into the water and starter mixture and mix with a rubber spatula until well incorporated. This is your levain. Let levain set out at room temperature for 2-3 hours, until it has grown by 25%. It will smell sweet and slightly acidic, and the flour taste will have dissipated.

Autolyse

While waiting for the levain to rise, mix 1025g of all-purpose bread flour, 115g high extraction wheat flour, and 860g of 80-degree water by hand in a large mixing bowl. Once all dry flour bits are gone (3-5 minutes), cover and let rest until levain is ready. The texture should be shaggy.

Mix

Just before the levain is ready and has risen by 25%, rinse and drain sprouts one last time. Coarsely grind sprouts in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle. Weigh out 115g of quinoa and 115g kamut, or 230g combined. Set aside. The larger finished amount, compared to the original dry grain weight, is due to water absorption. Retrieve the levain, autolyse dough, and additional water. Add all of the levain into the autolyse dough and squeeze and mix by hand until well incorporated, 4-5 minutes. It helps to use a wet hand when mixing. Add salt, wheat germ, quinoa sprouts, kamut sprouts, and additional water. Squeeze and mix by hand until well incorporated, 4-5 minutes. Again, a wet hand is helpful in the mixing process. Once dough is well incorporated, using a wet hand, begin to stretch and fold the dough over itself for a minute or two, until the dough starts to pull from the sides of the bowl. Transfer dough to a clear container, cover, and place in a warm (80°F) area, and let rest for 30 minutes.

Bulk Rise

After dough has rested for 30 minutes, wet hands and stretch one corner up and over to the opposite corner, taking care not to break or tear the dough. Repeat with all four corners of the dough. This is your first fold. Repeat the folding process every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours, until dough has risen by 25%, bubbles are visible, and the dough feels more together. This period of time is called the bulk rise, where the majority of the fermentation takes place. The process will be shorter for warmer dough and longer for cooler dough.

Pre-Shape

Once the bulk rise has come to completion according to the signs mentioned above, lightly wet a hard surface (bench) and turn the dough out onto the surface. Split the dough into three equal 850g portions using a bench knife, weighing with a scale if desired. Use as few cuts or breaks as possible, as each tear in the dough detracts from the final shape. Form the three portions roughly into rounds using your bench knife. Ideally, each round will have a somewhat taut “skin” around the outside, accomplished through tension between the bench and the bench knife. Wet hands if dough is sticking, but avoid using a lot of water, as this will inhibit the tension needed to form the dough into rounds. If the dough begins to break, let rest and repeat the pre-shaping again after 10 minutes. Let dough rest in rounds on the bench for 20-30 minutes.

Final Shape

After dough has rested in rounds for 20-30 minutes, it is time for the final shaping process. If the rounds have spread out into large pancake looking structures with little tension on the edges, pre-shape dough again, rest for 20-30 more minutes, then proceed to final shape. Lightly dust the exposed surface of the three dough rounds, as well as the area on the bench where you intend to shape. Swiftly scrape up and turn one round upside down using your bench knife onto the floured shaping area. The floured surface of the round should now be on the “bottom “of the round, the side touching the bench. The sticky side should be exposed. The options for final shaping at this point are endless. If using round bannetons, you can pull the corners up over the opposite ones repeatedly, forming a ball. For oval bannetons, you can lightly stretch the dough into a rectangle and proceed to roll it up, adding additional structural folds as desired. This method works great for pan breads as well. When final shaping, try not to use heavy amounts of flour or to tear or break the dough. Swift and gentle movements as well as practice are key to successful shaping. Repeat the final shaping with the other two rounds. Lightly flour the surface of the banneton baskets with rice flour. Sprinkle dry quinoa into the base of each banneton. Using your bench knife, scoop up each finished loaf and place it into a banneton seam side up. The exposed surface will end up being the bottom of your bread. Dust any sticky spots with rice flour. Cover each loaf with a floured kitchen towel, let set out at room temperature for 45 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator overnight.

Bake

Bread can rise in the fridge for 8-24 hours. Longer rise times yield more acidic bread, however, any amount of time in the fridge will theoretically contribute to a bit more acidity, a more caramelized crust and and open crumb. An hour or so before you are ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to as hot as it can go, ideally 500°F-550°F. There are many, many methods to bake hearth loaves. For home baking, a dutch oven yields great results. Pre-heat your dutch oven inside your home oven. Once hot, take a loaf out of the fridge, sprinkle the top with cornmeal, and gently flip the loaf in the base of the dutch oven, cornmeal side down. Score the loaf with a baker’s lame or razor blade 1/2 inch deep with a swift motion at a 45-degree angle. Cover the dutch oven with a lid and place back into the hot home oven. Turn temperature down to 475°F and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Remove lid and bake uncovered until desired color, or until interior temperature of the loaf reads 210°F.